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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Interesting article out this morning.  I'm sure everyone here will agree on the list . . . . .

[url]https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2024/04/29/exclusive-employers-are-souring-on-ivy-league-grads-while-these-20-new-ivies-ascend/?sh=216979fb5585
[/quote]

Interesting. I have a DC at Stanford who talks a lot about the poison of privilege and how Stanford is full of extremely privileged kids who, while usually driven, are not necessarily exceptionally bright (DC considers herself one of the privileged). She relates this to narratives around ethnic supremacy and entitlement and is very uncomfortable about it. Most (not all) of DC's friends at Stanford went to expensive private schools or public schools in very nice neighborhoods and have multi-million dollar vacation homes. Many have traveled widely and/or enjoyed spectacularly exciting and enriching gap years. Above all, they usually have very supportive parents who are willing to invest in them in every way. DC feels the highly-polished cubic zirconia squeeze out the internally flawless diamonds in the rough and that this should be taken into account when hiring or selecting for grad school. I wonder if there is a backlash against the "$40K a year private school to Ivy to powerful and influential positions pipeline," which favors those with early privilege over those with genuine talent, leading to a pool of mediocrities having disproportionate power in the U.S.[/quote]

You have a very perceptive and wise kid.

DC is full of people who are regarded as “accomplished” when they’re really just very well connected. I used to work on the Hill vetting Presidential nominees and then working with them after they were confirmed, and there are some really impressive people in our government, and some of those with inherited wealth are very smart and capable, but there are also an inordinate number of the barely mediocre who were privileged children admitted into a prestigious college who became the roommate of an even more prominently privileged person and parlayed that into a think tank or “consulting” gig and then a Presidential appointment. They’re very polished and put out a very good line of BS, but it’s frightening when you realize how little “there” is there. I guess that is why people in DC are so rabid about getting their kids into an Ivy — they think that it’s going to put their mediocre kid on that path.  But I think the these schools used to graduate a sufficient proportion of truly impressive people so that the mediocre ones could obtain enough polish and it was harder to pick them out of the crowd. Have you seen any of the interviews with the protestors at Columbia? They’re not even polished any more. They’re mediocre *and* can’t even fake anything else. [/quote]

I vetted the White House Fellows for years.  They were pretty bright. Are you talking about the interns? Like Monica Lewinsky?  Those are different, and usually favors. [/quote]

oh puleezr. white house fellows is a world apart from interns like Monica[/quote]

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